The world’s unluckiest beaver has been tragically killed in a ill-judged tree-gnawing incident.
The unfortunate Norwegian rodent is believed to have been crushed to death by his own efforts.
Beate Strøm Johansen, a zoologist at the Agder Natural History museum in Kristiansand was called to the scene by a logger and uploaded photographs of the squashed animal to Facebook.
She told online news website The Local: “When they tree is falling they have to jump aside so the tree doesn’t hit them. Instinctively, they should know where it is falling, but sometimes they don’t know which way to jump.
“Sometimes there’s a strong wind and the tree doesn’t fall where the beaver thinks it’s going to fall.”
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Beavers normally live in family groups and can survive up to 24 years in the wild and 35 years in captivity.
They are herbivorous rodents who build corridors in their dams to dodge predators such as wolves and bears in the wild.
The animals are nocturnal, grow to more than 3ft, weigh up to 70lbs, and feed on a diet of reeds, leaves and bark.
Beavers were hunted almost to extinction in Europe, both for fur and for castoreum, a secretion of its scent gland for medicinal properties.